Monday, March 19, 2007

If you ever want demonstrations of Why People Do What They Do, just look around. Just about every human impulse and action is demonstrated on a daily basis in small, analogous ways. There's enough examples in the world to fill a book, something that I intend to do someday. Not today, though.

One of my favorites is at work in the small kitchen in my work area. There's a dishwasher, but dirty dishes pile up in the sink every day, to disgusting levels. It's a mini-example in inconsiderateness (inconsideracy?), but the real story is in the signs that are taped above the sink by anonymous, fed-up people. When the sign's writing is polite and calm—something like, "Please take a few moments and put your dishes in the dishwasher"—the mountain of dirty dishes piles as high as usual. But when someone gets really fed up and makes a sign that says something like, "Be civilized! Don't expect others to clean up your mess!", everyone around the office complains about how obnoxious and snobby it is, but guess what? The sink stays clean.

There is, of course, not a single person in the world who thinks that they require humiliation and insults to do what they should have had done in the first place, and that people are either considerate or they're not, and it's manners and breeding that separate the two. But in reality, it's pretty incredible what you can get people to do and believe with some belittling.

9 comments:

Ah in the defense of those who leave the dishes in the sink, and having lived amongst your coworkers before... I personally never knew what the score with the dishwasher was. Are they clean or dirty - you cannot always tell especially when most of the dishes are cups.

There is a mystery to that kitchen. Who runs the dishwasher? Who unloades it? When does this happen? They need to post a schedule with information about what happans in there and when.

I'm just sayin' that I always felt unsure about the kitchen protocol so I just tried not to have to use it.

Don't let the focus fool you, Kris. I do not keep a clean apartment. I'll clean up after myself at work and in other people's houses, but not my own. I'm not quite sure what that says about me, but there you go.